Always Darkest Before the Dawn
by Team Dragon Star
Summary: Power is not permitted, it is earned which is what Vegeta had to learn the hard way. ONE-SHOT.


_**Since DevilsDoCry decided to rejoin, TDS brings you a one-shot from him as a "new" member. **_

_**Disclaimer: TDS does not own Dragonball/Z/GT**_

**Always Darkest Before The Dawn**

Power.

All I ever had for so long was my power and my ability to use it as a tool. The only thing my father ever taught me was that a Saiyan's strength was capable of overcoming any challenge. Oh, and he challenged me every day since I was old enough to walk. He would push me to my breaking point, to the very limits of my body all in the pursuit of power. Each day a new challenge to overcome. Each day another test of my physical and mental strength.

Pah the hypocritical old fool, the one thing in life he teaches me and he can't even grasp the meaning of his actions. Instead of conquering his own challenge of overcoming the limits of his strength, he instead pins his entire hopes on a toddler to challenge Frieza. instead of becoming stronger, he rested on his laurels. He became too arrogant and egotistical to ever believe that a lizard like Frieza could ever stand up to the might of the saiyan king. The proud old bastard got a death fitting of someone who was so convinced of their own strength, that they could never be defeated. And of all his talk of power, all it took to bring the great saiyan king to his demise was one blow.

I would've probably met the same fate if It wasn't for Frieza noticing me rushing to my father's corpse and crying over his limp body. Frieza never did tell me why he let me live; all he said to me was actions speak louder than words and that my actions would be beneficial to him one way or another. Yet, I was introduced with another teaching to take with me in my life and another task master to apply them to, but still there was a staggering difference in the methods used. Whenever I was battered and bruised beyond repair my father would always stop and throw me in the healing tanks, but with Frieza if I was battered and bruised beyond repair I was useless to him and left on the floor of the training room to either heal slowly or die like so many others. Saiyans recover quicker than other species and would also become stronger from near death battles and Frieza knew all of this.

Never in my entire time on his ship did I go a session without being beaten to within an inch of my life, even at that tender age I was far superior than most of his elites and able to purge planets but still in his eyes I was just another monkey with an attitude problem and a body to beat. Boy did I hate that bastard; and anger and vengeance are a potent mix especially when bottled up for so long with only someone light-years out of your league to fight. It was only until the apparent destruction of planet Vegeta that Frieza found someone for me to take out my aggressions on, he said it was a small reward for actually landing some hits on him for a change, but when the time came to face my opponents I had never more in my life wanted to back down from a fight. That slimy little bastard had rounded up all the Saiyans who had attempted to flee in space pods away from planet Vegeta, women, children and elderly. Yes the saiyan race were all formidable fighters no matter what age or gender but this was sick, how could he expect me to fight my own people? It was then it dawned on me that little bastard knew my capabilities and he also knew if I didn't obey then it would mean death and the only thing a Saiyan is taught from birth is do anything to survive. I do not want to relive the things I did to them. If I ever did tell anyone only two reactions would come from it.

Utter disgust at what I had done to my own people or sympathy for the way I was forced into doing it. I don't know which one I would rather have; both choices are as bad as each other.

It was after I had decimated what I believed the last of my people that Frieza started sending me on purges, the only reason was I no longer had emotion in my eyes. He said they were dark and lifeless like the eyes of a murderer and that was the result he got; a cold blooded murderer sent to destroy civilizations for the highest bidder and that was what I did for years under Frieza. Countless planets, countless purges all as unchallenging as the rest. The toll of seeing so much death would've broken anyone else would've driven them insane, but not me no my mind was strong it must've been the last and only thing I ever thanked that lizard for.

This constant cycle of destroying planets with ease carried on for many years, until on one planet there was a civilization that posed an actual threat. There fighting power was average but god, the saying about there being strength in numbers came true on this planet there was literally thousands of them all unwilling to give nothing less than death to protect their planet and it was from this I learnt another thing about myself I had inherited my father's arrogance.

Believing myself to be near invincible and the only fighter worthy of my power was Frieza, I didn't expect the damage they did to me, yes I had destroyed a large amount of their forces but the sheer amount of them overwhelmed me. That was all I remember, I found myself waking up in the infirmary a few hours later facing two muscular men in battle armour both with tails. Also there was Frieza looking at me with blood lust in his eyes and a beating on his fists, however he showed a rare moment of restraint, he had told me he had found two Saiyans working as mercenaries for one of the planets overlords. Mercenaries, they were Saiyans bred as fighting machines with pride and dignity not disposable tools for a tyrant and then it struck me

Was I any better?

_Of course you are. You were forced into this by fear of death by someone million of times stronger than you_, _but could it have been any different for them? They are but two Saiyans on a planet of thousands of fighters that could be much stronger than them. Even if that wasn't the case and they were able to oppose these people they would've been outnumbered just as easily as you_.

The struggle in my mind must've been more evident than I thought because Frieza was smiling a devilish grin and it unnerved me. After Frieza had left the infirmary the two other Saiyans introduced themselves as Raditz and Nappa, I remembered Nappa he was a saiyan general who was supposed to be on the strike team my father led to face Frieza; however, he was on assignment dealing with a call for backup from a saiyan squad dealing with a revolt. He said that was how he came to meet Raditz as he was the only surviving member of the squad when Nappa had arrived.

Tch how the hell a weakling like him survived is a mystery and as a result of it I was stuck with him from now on. It wasn't like I was opposed to his company it was well he didn't have a use really other than being lucky and as luck would have it Raditz remembered of his little brother Kakarot. Tch like some untrained pubescent monkey would ever be useful to us I don't know, but in Raditz's mind it made sense that we apply the tactic of the enemy and used strength in numbers. He departed for his brother that day and as he was hurtling though space to meet him meanwhile, Nappa and I trained to our limits to see if we could overcome them and become powerful enough to triumph over the sheer strength in numbers tactic with overwhelming force.

We trained for months and months at a time using hit and run tactics along the planet to try and thin out the number of fighters. Damn it hurt my pride to use such tactics but it was the only survivable way too take that planet, and the will to survive would overcome pride any day.

Nappa and I eventually managed to rid the planet of its inhabitants. Nappa even took his old bosses head as a trophy. It wasn't until that time did we finally hear anything from Raditz; it was a emergency transmission something about wish granting dragon balls. The simpleton actually believed we would wish him back when we had collected them,. The fool. Anyone who was weak enough to be beat by a bunch of Earthlings deserved to stay dead. It was then Nappa and I decided on eternal life for ourselves and left in search of Kakarot's planet that day.

**1 year later**

"

Prince Vegeta, awaken earth is in site," said the pods on board computer

"Hmm so we finally get to fight Raditz's executioners, it's been to long since I had a good fight," exclaimed Nappa obviously still a little light headed from the fumes of the wake up gas.

"Be quiet Nappa, you might want to reserve some of that ego for when we have won and crashed this mudball into the nearest sun,"

"That might come sooner than expected look the pods are landing in the middle of a city, oh good a little bit of small scale destruction to warm us up,"

"Nappa be quiet and prepare for landing you know it hurts like hell if you're not breathing in on landing and at the minute your expelling a bit too much air,"

As the space pods landed the craters could be seen for miles around east city. And the next instant a flash of white tore through the sky, and east city was nothing but a distant memory.


End file.
